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LETTER OF ERASMUS RASK 



TO 



HENRY WHEATON. 



Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Massachusetts 
Historical Society for April, 1880. 



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Mr. G. Dextee. communicated a letter from Professor 
Erasmus Rask to the Hon. Henry Wheaton, saying : — 

I have found lately among some papers of the late Henry 
Wheaton, for many years the diplomatic representative of 
this country at the courts of Copenhagen and Berlin, an inter- 
esting letter written to him in 1831 by Erasmus Rask on the 
subject of the discovery of America by the Northmen. Mr. 
Rask is recognized as one of tlie great philological scholars of 
his time, and he was particuhirly well acquainted with the 
Icelandic language and literature, on which he wrote several 
treatises. Mr. Wheaton, at the date of this letter, had just 
published in London his history of the Northmen. He had 
made due mention in this of their visits to America, and as 
it was a matter in which he took great interest, he was now 
perhaps seeking more information from his friend. 

I do not forget that this letter of Mr. Rask was written 
before the publication of Professor Rafn's great work, the 
" Antiquitates Ameiicana?," which appeared in 1837. Nor 
am I unaware that Mr. Wheaton himself, in the French trans- 



1880.1 TT^Stk-CKS BY :mr. g. dexter. 19 

y. 

lation of \n^ history, publislied in 18-14, which was substan- 
tially a revised edition of the original work, adojDted Mr. 
Rafn's views.* 

Bat the " Antiqnitates Americanse " was as it were a new 
departure in these Northern studies. For the first time the 
sagas were given to the world, carefully edited and translated 
into a language read by the learned of all countries. Tiie 
completeness and splendor of the manner of publication of 
the book, the ability of the editors, and, above all, their 
earnest enthusiasm, seemed to carry all before them for a 
time. Nearly every one was disposed to accept the narra- 
tives of the sagas, and to agree with the plausildy argued 
conclusions of the Danish editors. Tliere was perhaps also a 
feeling of patriotic pride among the Northern scholars, tiiat 
tlieir ancestors had jDreceded Columbus in the discoverj^ of 
the new world. Certainly no attempt was made in Denmark 
to refute Rafn's arguments, and the Royal Society of North- 
ern Antiquaries at once appointed a committee on the ante- 
Columbian discovery of America, and established an American 
section of the Museum, in which supposed traces of the North- 
men's visits were to be preserved. 

To-day, however, while the visits of these Northmen to 
some parts of the American continent are perhaps generally 
admitted by careful historians, scholars have grown very 
cautious in accepting the details of the narratives, and reluc- 
tant to receive Professor Rafn's identification of the places 
visited by Leif and Thorvald. 

Dighton Rock and the old mill at Newport, on which so 
much argument was built, have been abandoned. There 
exist no known works of the Northmen in the United States. 
Mr. Schoolcraft and Dr. Palfrey have settled that point. The 
lapse of forty years since the appearance of Mr. Rafn's laboi-s 
has made it evident also that another of his conclusions may 
be doubted. He and his coadjutor, Professor Finn ]\Iagnusen, 
have endeavored in learned arguments to show that the pre- 
cise latitude of " Leifsbudir " can be deduced from the state- 
ment in the saga of the length of the Avinter's day. The 
testimony of the exact scholar whose letter I have brought 

* Mr. Paul Guillot, the translator of Mr. Wlieaton's history, calls liis book on 
the titlepage, " edition revue et auguientee p:ir I'auteur, avec cartes, inscrip- 
tions, et alpliabet runiques." And in his j)reface he states that the book is 
" moins une traduction qu'une nouvellc edition, enriciii des notes et des 
rcciierciics que I'autcur roservait pour une secoiule ))ublication." An appendi.K 
of new matter, of about one liundred pages, is taken from Rafn's " Antiqnitates 
American£e." Tlie summary of Fimi Magnusen's argument about the lengtii of 
the winter day is given on p. 83 n. 



20 MASSACHUSETrs HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [April, 

here to-day may be of value on that point. And I may recall 
the fact that Mr. Gudbrand Vigfussen, the editor of Cleasby's 
Icelandic Dictionary, the latest authority, states that the 
editor of the " Antiquitates Americanie " is mistaken in this 
matter. 

Mr. Rask's letter, admirabl}^ expressed when we remember 
that he writes in a tongue not his native one, is as follows: — 

K</)BENHAVN, d"'. 29 Dec, 1831. 
The fact of the Icelanders and Greenlanders visiting North 
America, which they called Wiaeland the Good (in comparison with 
Iceland and Greenland), is beyond any doubt. It is mentioned 
obiter : — 

1. In the Landnamabok, twice (pp. 133, 219, 220). This is one of 
the best-authenticated sagas existing, published from parchment 
codices. 

2. In the new edition of Olaf Trjggvason's saga, published also 
from parchment (manuscript), vol. ii. p. 246, equally obiter, and just 
on that behalf the surer. A specimen of the very respectable chief 
codex is to be seen in the Olaf the Saint's saga, which is printed from 
the same. 

3. Eyrbyggja-saga, p. 252, is also spoken of Vmland hit goda, 
briefly indeed, but very much corroborating the other accounts. There 
if. in this place related a battle between the Northmen and the Es- 
kimoes (Skrajli'ngjar), in which a person fell whose history is related 
in the saga, the author speaking no wise else in that place of Vinland. 
This saga is also one of the most creditable, though but indifferently 
published ; it exists, at least partly, on parchment. 

4. Snorre Sturleson in his celebrated Heimskringla, vol. i. p. 303, 
mentions obiter the discovery of Vinland hit godci, made by Leif 
Erikson from Greenland. This chapter contains the genuine words 
of Snorre himself, and exists on parchment, as well as in the other 
transcripts, as may be seen, /. c, in the various readings. The de- 
tailed relation, inserted from other sources, begins on the next page 
(304), as is fairly stated in the note relating to the beginning of 
chapter 105. 

5. Are-frocte in his Islendingabdk or schedtB, chap. vi. (p. 9 in the 
new octavo edition of Islendingasogur, vol. i.), mentions also Finland, 
obiter, as a country well known. When the Icelanders discovered 
Greenland, they found both on the eastern and western coast traces 
(dwellings) of " men of the same race," he says, "as inhabits Vinlan i, 
and is called Skrjfihngjar by the (Scandinavian, northern) Green- 
landers." 

The whole discovery, or several expeditions to Vinland, is de- 
scribed : — 

1. In the celebrated Flateybook, where it is inserted in the saga of 
Olaf Tryggvason. From a bad transcript of this it was published 
first by Peringskold in his edition of Heimskringla, and afterward by 
the Danish editors. 



1880.] LETTER FROM ERASMUS RASK. -I 

2. In Erik the Red's saga the iliscovery is spoken of, chap. v. (in my 
mannscript copy) ; and another expedition from Greenh^nd to Vinland 
is detailed, chap. vii. et seq. In this expedition was discovered some 
interjacent countries: 1. Ilellulfrnd, tweuty-iour hours' journey from 
Greenland ; then, two days' journey farther, with north wind, Marh- 
land, * and an island Bjarney, &c. ; twenty-four hours farther, 
Slraumsey and Strait nis/j or Jr, &c. At last the battle with the 
natives, in which the Icelander fell who is spoken of in Eyrbyggja- 
saga, is described in the ninth and last chai)ter. This saga a[)pears 
to be somewhat fabulous, viz., written long time after the event, and 
taken from tradition. 

3. Thorfinn Karlsefnes-saga is the story of the chief hero who went 
to "Wineland the Good. It exists on one or two very old and most 
excellent jxircliment codices. The two last mentioned are not pub- 
lished. 

It is remarkable that besides of Vi'niand there is an old tradition of 
another extensive country in the west, called Hvitra-manna-land (White 
men's land), or Ireland the Great {rasfe), Irland hit mikln. In the 
first place of Landnumabdk quoted above, it is spoken of as situated 
right west of Ireland, and not far from Vinland the Good.f The 
people were civilized and Christians (it seems) before the Icelanders. 
Of course, I mean Irishmen or Welshmen, rather the first mentioned, 
as they also had begun to people the southern parts of Iceland before 
the arrival of the Northmen (according to Are-frode, Landiiamabok, 
&c.). This country is also mentioned in the last chapter of Eyrbyggja, 
in Eriksrauda-saga, &c. 

I think it tolerably clear in general that it was the country of 
Labrador, with ihe islands adjacent, and perhaps Nova Scotia, that 
were visited by the Northmen. Straumsfjordr, I fancy, was the Bay of 
St. Lawrence, and that Hvitra-manna-land^ or Trland hit mikla, was the 
northern parts, or the whole then known of the United States, where 
the Irish or Welsh colonies have been afterward destroyed by the 
natives, or lost among them, just like the Icelandic colonies in Green- 
land. 

But to ascertain exactly the places meant by the names of HeUaland, 
Markland^ Straumsey, and Vinland, is next to impossibility until the 
text of Eriksrauda-saga and Thorfinn Karlsefnes-saga shall be pub- 
lished critically in the work of Professors Magnusen and Kafn, with 
Fiatin translations. Then, I fancy, a person who knows the natural 
appearance of the coast of Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, «&c., 
will be able to ascertain the places tolerably correctly from the descrip- 

* Because it was covered " with wood " (isld. morn, silva, non danish Mark, 

campus). — Manjinal note of Mr. Rash. 

t Some captivated children from Vinland state it situated right against their 
native country (on tlie soutliern banks of the St. Lawrence ?), and tliat the in 
liabitants wore tcliite dresses; but I wouhl rather derive tlie name from tlio com 
plexion of the Europeans, so that licit ra-ntdnna-limd would be tlie country occupied 
by Europeans ; and, supposed these were Irishmen, it would be perfectly synony- 
mous with Irland kit mi/da. — Marcjinal note of Mr. Rask. 



22 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Ai-iiiL, 

tions given of each of them in the sagas, — never from the length of 
the shortest day, it being liable to so different interpretations. Our 
ancestors did not divide the day into twelve honrs, but into four eyids, 
each of three hours. Hddegi (high day) was twelve o'clock ; non (or 
in ancient times, undorn) was three o'clock {hora nond) ; miotr-aptan, 
six o'clock ; ndttmdl, nine o'clock ; midncett, twelve o'clock (or mid- 
night) ; dtta (whence ottasaimgr), three in the morning; midr morgnn, 
six o'clock; dagmdl, nine o'clock. But now the question is whether 
midday, for instance, was in the very beginning of the eykt called 
hddegi, or in the middle, or even end of it. The two first-mentioned 
modes of reckoning have prevailed in Iceland till of late, but who 
shall tell us which of the three possible modes has been intended by 
the author in question ? Besides, this author is not published crit- 
ically from the memhrana, — does not say how many eyktir the shortest 
day had, but at what time the sun did set and rise. However, I think 
that not easily any better explanation of the passage alluded to shall 
be founil than that of Torfaeus, given at the end of his Vinlandia, — 
at least not before the texts of these relations shall be published. As 
my time does not permit me to enter into any examination of the 
manuscripts, being partly preserved in the Royal Library, I shall send 
you the work of Torfaeus, which contains much curious information 
about those regions. 

From this you will see that even Adamns Bremensis mentions 
Vinland as the utmost inhabitable country in the world, beyond Ice- 
land and Greenland, only he seems to place it north of Greenland, in 
which he may have misunderstood King Svend Estridsen, from whom 
he derived his information, or even this [monarch?] may have been 
mistaken himself about that distant country, not occupied by any of the 
crowned heads of Europe. 

I wish you a very happy New Year, sir, and have the honor to 

remain, sir, „ .it. 

1 our most obedient servant, 

Erasmus Rask. 



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LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



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